Musebeam

It begins...

Lannan's PoV

The past three months of my life had been some of the best: I moved in to the Click House after changing my mind about the situation; my channel was on the biggest rise it had seen in a long time; and above all, I managed to get myself a girlfriend. Her name was Ruby, and she was the most amazing girl I'd ever met. Plus, she was gorgeous, which was a bonus.

Today was our anniversary, so I had planned to take her out to her favourite restaurant. I even dug out the one good shirt I had from the bottom of my wardrobe and attempted to tame my wild hair. When I came out of my room ready to pick her up, Marcus was walking past, and he stopped to take a look at me.

"Special occasion?" he asked, indicating the way I'd dressed.

"Something like that," I smiled.

"Looking good," he commented before leaving back on his trails. My smile only grew as I made my way up the stairs to the entrance of the house, ready to leave. I double-checked that I had everything I needed (phone, money, keys) and walked out the door once I was satisfied.

But in the back of my head, a tiny voice was telling me it was too good to be true. Man, had I wished I'd listened to it.

As I walked up to the door of her apartment, I heard giggling from inside. Ruby liked comedy shows, so I wasn't too phased by this at first, but then I heard another laugh.

A man's laugh.

She didn't have any brothers, and she didn't live with any men either, so only one possibility was left: she was cheating on me.

I knocked on the door anyway just in case I was wrong. I had to be wrong, right?

But my suspicions were only confirmed when Ruby opened the door with smudged lipstick and a hickey poking from under her shirt, desperately trying to hide it from my view.

"Lannan, what are you doing here?" she asked me, trying to look innocent. I wasn't fooled.

"Our anniversary dinner, remember?" I replied, cold as ice. "I guess I should cancel the reservations."

I walked away after that, not listening to anything she may or may not have tried to say to me. I just wanted her blocked from my thoughts entirely. Tears started threatening to spill as I made my way outside, deciding to walk back to the house to try and get my emotions in check before anyone there started asking questions.

To be fair, I wouldn't mind opening up to Cray and Bazz as much as the others because they're so easy-going and wouldn't ever judge the situation. However, they always joke a lot and tend to use humour as a coping mechanism for quite a few things, and I wasn't ready for this to be joked about yet. Kath would probably pull me into something to cheer me up, which also wasn't a bad thing, but I just wasn't in the mood for it right now. Marcus would probably give me the best advice, but I found out the hard way that no secrets are kept between him and Kath, understandably, which leads back to the whole "cheer me up" situation again. Great, looks like I was avoiding him too.

And no way in hell was I talking about this to Elliott. Sure, I liked the fella, but he was so loud and obnoxious, and couldn't keep a secret to save his life. Plus, he saw himself above everyone else in the house, when in fact, we're all equals, and that just really got on my nerves.

At this point, I decided that it would probably be best if I avoided everyone and dealt with this on my own terms. Yes, it would be difficult considering there were five others in the house, but I had to try.

I got to the house after the sun had set and the temperature had dropped, so I was a little cold. I tried to be as quiet as possible when I came in, choosing to go directly to my room, but sadly, I didn't go unnoticed.

Elliott had spotted me.

Elliott's PoV

I was helping my sister Grace set up some new microphones in the communal area for our aspiring podcast. We didn't know if it was going to go ahead yet, but even if it didn't, microphones never come in wrong.

Just as we were finishing untangling an UNGODLY amount of wires, I heard the door upstairs open and close. Lannan must be back from dinner with his girlfriend. Although, I realised as I glanced at my watch, he hadn't been gone awfully long, which wasn't like him on a date. Usually, he'd be gone for hours at a time with Ruby. Had something gone wrong?

I wanted to ask him, I really did, but I knew he didn't really like me that much, so I text Cray instead. He was much closer to Lannan than I was, so it would probably be better for Lannan than me asking him about it.

Crayator's PoV

I was just in my room watching some Disney films because I had a soft spot for them in my heart. Around halfway into "The Lion King", my phone went off beside me. Elliott had text me.

Do me a favour and check on Lannan for me? Something's up but I don't want to ask him about it 'cos I know he doesn't like me all that much. I know you guys are closer, so I thought I'd ask.

Sure, I replied, then paused the film and went to knock on Lannan's door. I tried to be quiet when leaving my room because Bazz was having trouble sleeping lately, so he'd sometimes crash out early in the night, and I didn't want to disturb him if that was the case tonight.

I knocked on Lannan's door but didn't get an answer. I tried again and only heard a quiet "go away", which I ignored. Elliott was right- something was definitely wrong. So, I opened the door and went in, letting him know I was coming just in case he wasn't dressed or something. I wasn't prepared for the sight that bombarded me when I turned the corner.

Lannan looked a right state: his hair was messy, but not in its normal way; his eyes were red and irritated, as if he'd been crying; and he was slumped at his desk, but none of his monitors were on. The man looked thoroughly broken to pieces.

"I told you to go away," he mumbled, trying to disguise the fact that he'd been crying. It didn't work very well.

"Which is why I'm here, man. Something's obviously gone on here... it's good to get it out your system before it takes over your mind," I replied. "What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," he said quickly, eyes brimming with tears once more. Another thought hit me as I looked at my broken friend- wasn't he supposed to be out with his girlfriend tonight?

Then I put two and two together.

"Ruby ended things, didn't she?" I asked softly, sitting on the desk so I was facing him. He looked away, hurt in his eyes, and I knew I was right. "What happened?" I asked again.

"She was cheating on me. I don't know how long for. She could have been using me all along, Cray, and I wouldn't have known it because she convinced me it was real, you know?" he finally spoke, letting reality set in.

We both sat in silence for a minute, Lannan because he was trying not to cry and me because I didn't want to accidently say something that might tip him over the edge. "What you need is a night out to forget this girl ever hurt you. A night to remind you that you're better than she ever was and deserve someone who can match that amount of awesomeness," I said. "What do you say?"

It was a while before he responded, but he finally gave a small nod, a smile creeping onto his face.

"Alright!" I exclaimed. "Trust me, this is going to be a night you're not going to forget, but will struggle to remember at the same time," I joked, and he gave me a look. "Alright, alright, I'll tone it down a little."

We ended up getting pretty drunk anyway. Oops...

Thx for reading this chapter please vote if you injoyed it thx ThatOneBritishWriter for editing

Jenny 😜